Oui, Oui….Yummy

Sadly, I have only been to France once, and it wasn’t Paris and I was dating a strict vegan who didn’t drink. Sigh. No wine and no cheese and he didn’t eat “white” bread or sweets. Really, what is the point of going to France if you aren’t going to eat the food and drink the wine? The Tour de France is the answer. I must be longing to go since I have only been dragging out my French based cookbooks or being attracted to the French recipes in the non-French cookbooks. First with the madeleines and now with financiers. I had always known them as newlywed cakes and so when I was reading the recipe for them in Just A Bite, and Gand talked about them being a newlywed dessert, I took that as a sign to make them. I love how moist and spongy the cakes are with that wonderful addition of brown butter and almond meal. Traditionally, I would make these with berries but since they are not in season, they are a tad pricey. So I went with satsumas and pears.

I have a feeling that January is going to be French month…I may just make my new year’s resolution to gain 16 pounds quicker than I planned

Make the brown butter: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will seperate into melted golden fat and white, grainy milk solids. Keep cooking until the milk solids turn golden brown and the mixture smells like toasted nuts, making beurre noisette. Let the butter cool slightly, then strain it through a fine strainer to remove the toasted milk solids.
Sift the dry ingredients together and transfer to a mixer fitted with a whip attachment. Add the egg whites, applesauce, and strained beurre noisette and mix.
Heat the oven to 375F. Cut your fruit so that it is about the size of a nickel.
Pipe or spoon the batter into the prepared pans(mini muffin pans), filling them three-quarters full. Place a piece of fruit in the center of each cake. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden and browned around the edges.
Let cakes cool in the pans, then gently lift them out.

No wonder you didn’t end up with that guy! So how newly wed are you? I just got married this past March (19th). I didn’t know there was a newlywed pastry, however. I should try to work them in before our first year is up.

Sounds delicious and looks beautiful. And thanks for the straightforward directions for making brown butter–I’ll definitely give this a try. You said you’d normally use berries in your Financiers. What kind of berries do you prefer in them?

Regarding your culinarily ill-fated trip to France, I’m sure your friend was a wonderful person–you don’t travel abroad with just anyone, after all–but vegans are a total bore. Go back with a wine drinking omnivore and you’ll have a much better time. And definitely go to Paris. You will be hard pressed to find a bad meal anywhere.

Welcome

Hi I’m Peabody (yep, that’s my first name) and welcome to my site! Here you will find a whole lot of yummy recipes (mostly baking and dessert), positive body image promotion, telling it like it is, and the random things that make up my life. Thanks for stopping by! {More…}